China's refinery crude throughput rose 2.9% year on year to 50.46 million mt, or an average 12.33 million b/d, in November, preliminary data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Friday showed.
The November crude throughput was, however, down 1.2% from October, the second consecutive month-on-month decline after hitting a record high of 12.54 million b/d in September, according to S&P Global Platts calculations.
The fall was attributed mainly to lower run rates at both state-owned and independent refineries in November.
China's state-owned refiners -- Sinopec, PetroChina, Sinochem and China National Offshore Oil Corporation -- cut their planned average refinery run rate to around 83% of nameplate capacity in November, from the revised run rate of 85% for October, according to a Platts survey earlier.
China is grappling with overflowing stocks of gasoline amid high domestic production, unusually low winter demand and relatively lower availability of export quotas, prompting state-owned refiners to cut run rates in November.
Independent refineries in Shandong also lowered their operating rates to an average of 64.6% in November from 67.4% in October, data from JLC, a Chinese energy information provider, showed.
The lower run rates was mainly due to weaker refining margins and some refineries choosing to cut throughput or shut for a while in November, Platts reported.
Over January-November, total refinery crude throughput rose 7.2% year on year to 554.48 million mt, or 12.17 million b/d, NBS data showed.
China's crude oil production in November fell 1.3% year on year to 15.53 million mt, or 3.79 million b/d, according to NBS data.
The figure was also down 0.3% month on month on a barrel per day basis, Platts calculations showed.
During January-November, domestic crude oil output fell 1.6% on the year to 172.75 million mt, averaging 3.79 million b/d.
China's natural gas production rose 10.1% year on year to 14.3 Bcm in November. It rose 6.6% year on year to 143.8 Bcm over January-November, NBS data showed.
